Monday, March 18, 2019

Yard Critter of the Week - Greenhouse Millipede

Oxidus gracilis, the Greenhouse Millipede.


This creature is found not only in my backyard, but worldwide. An Asian native, it has made it's way to every continent but Antarctica. Putting all those legs to good use it seems.

This particular individual was on the outside wall of our fireplace. It seems that they will happily live their lives in the leaf litter, munching away on decaying plant matter, rarely noticed. However, while they like it moist they can't tolerate to much water. And 2018 was a very wet year in these here parts. When that happens these critters head for higher ground. Winding up with their image in some random blog, immortalized as a yard critter of the week.


Millipedes, which have two legs per body segment, and centipedes, which have one (and fangs!) both give me the creeps. They are just so alien. And much too fast. And both can be poisonous, centipedes with those fangs are carnivores. Millipedes are only poisonous if you eat them.

Which was highly unlikely.

And thus neither I, nor this millipede, were harmed in creating this blog post.

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Thanks to the folks at BugGuide who were able to identify this critter for me.

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You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

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